Room & Resource booking built on Microsoft Exchange & Outlook

Room & Resource booking built on Microsoft Exchange & Outlook

Build on your existing scheduling & messaging investment Microsoft Exchange & Outlook provides an excellent platform for scheduling meetings with co-workers, but booking additional resources beyond a simple meeting room can be challenging. Finding the right meeting room and making requests for associated services such as presentation equipment, catering choices, seating arrangements, visitor badges, parking, and so on, usually consumes more time than desired for both end users and facilities management staff. With Resource Central it takes less than 2 minutes. The only solution built from the ground up for Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, Resource Central enables users to quickly and easily locate their optimal resources, verify attendee availability and order all associated services for their meetings directly through Outlook. Easily tailored to reflect your resources and corporate branding, Resource Central gives a quick overview of all meeting rooms, hot-desks and other facilities, showing availability, photographs and other details such as maximum capacity, floor plans and directions. Complex requests such as catering options, service times and special dietary requirements, visitor passes and parking, teleconferencing services, and so on, are all massively simplified for end users. Behind-the-scenes, Resource Central includes the workflow, status updates, order form creation wizard, rules management and reporting needed to streamline your company s resource management needs. Importantly, by extending Exchange, and not simply integrating with it, Resource Central ensures ease of use for staff, eliminates risk of double bookings, and eases support for the IT department. 2

Rooms & Desks Equipment Catering Parking Visitor Badges Reports Request logs Reminders Touch screens 1 2 3 Key Benefits Saves Time Spent Booking Meetings Even where meeting rooms can be booked using Outlook Calendar, the process of arranging catering, AV equipment, seating layouts, visitor passes, etc, can involve several emails and phone calls with facilities, technical and reception staff. Resource Central lets staff request all the additional services needed for their meeting in one place. Navigation of rooms by location and attributes eases selection, especially for staff visiting an unfamiliar office. The resources available in each room can be requested via centrally managed forms. Reminders and a view of all booked meetings and services helps avoid wasted catering and unused rooms. Reduces Meeting Costs, Improves Service Levels Behind-the-scenes, Resource Central streamlines the process of handling and managing resource requests, saving significant administrative time for facilities staff and freeing them to focus on service delivery. Facilities staff receive immediate email notification of any requests and changes, such as reductions in catering numbers. An automatically updated list of all requests for the day, week, etc, can be viewed at any point in time. Ordering deadlines can be set on all resources, ensuring expectations are set according to what can be delivered by the relevant service providers, both internal and external. Buffer times can be added to allow for cleaning and layout changes between meetings. Demonstrates Savings to the Business Resource Central s reporting helps organisations understand how their resources are being used and pinpoint where savings can be made. Which rooms and work spaces are used 99% of the time? How can usage of spaces occupied less than 25% of the time be improved? Run standard reports or create your own using the flexibility of Microsoft SQL Reporting services. Allocate charges to cost centres and perform cost analysis. 4 Underpins Flexible Working Initiatives Flexible ways of working create the opportunity to make significant real-estate savings. However, providing the infrastructure to support successful hot-desking and work-space usage is challenging. Resource Central makes it easy for staff to schedule their office visits and book a desk and any other facilities at the same time. 5 Minimises Support & Training Overheads Using Resource Central, enterprises can take advantage of their existing email and calendaring infrastructure and skill sets. End users don t need to learn or log into a totally separate resource booking application. Support staff can work with familiar technology and don t have to get to grips with a totally separate application. Use of Exchange resources and calendar bookings already in Outlook avoids confusion as the new system is introduced. 3

The perfect solution... for everyone: End Users: You use Outlook calendar and email on a daily basis to schedule meetings with co-workers. It s a logical progression to find, request and update the additional resources you need in the same place. MORE > 5 Facilities Managers: You already use email to handle resource requests from staff and suppliers. By building automation into this process you can remove hours of time spent exchanging phone calls and emails. MORE > 6 IT Staff: Your team already runs a reliable, scalable and widely-used calendaring and messaging service. By building directly onto this you ll have a service that is easy to understand and support. MORE > 7 As we were so used to using Outlook for booking meetings with co-workers, it was vital to keep the process of booking meeting rooms & other resources linked. 4

The End User s View Find your optimum room By joining forces with your regular Microsoft Outlook email and calendaring system, Resource Central enables you to quickly and easily locate the most appropriate meeting rooms for your needs. Available rooms can be navigated according to their location, size, accessibility, seating configurations (e.g. classroom, theatre), built-in facilities and so on. Photographs and maps can be added to ease the selection process further - especially useful if you re unfamiliar with a location. Order additional services in under 2 minutes Once you ve invited your attendees and booked a room, you can request all associated services. An intuitive form prompts you to select all the options available to you: catering choices, service timings, seating layouts, AV equipment, teleconferencing services, visitor badges, parking spaces and more. Additional information such as cost-codes can be added or even selected from drop-down menus. Once you press the send button your room request will be accepted automatically to reserve the room, however your requests can be subsequently changed or declined by authorised service providers. Change your orders with ease Making amendments to your requests (such as changes to catering numbers) is simple. You ll also get reminders of imminent meetings and can view all your future bookings in one place. This helps eliminate common problems such as forgetting to cancel meetings and wasted food. You have a recurring meeting and just need to cancel one instance? No problem. Simply cancel the order using Outlook Calendar and Resource Central automatically cancels any ancillary resource orders. Book seating layouts, presentation equipment, see pictures of the room and more. Make catering requests, specify service times, allocate cost-centre codes and view the latest menus! 5

The Service Provider s View Automated request handling When resources are requested, Resource Central automatically emails notifications to all relevant internal and external facilities staff, including catering, the IT team, porters, reception staff, cleaners, etc. You can define policies that govern how requests are handled: Some requests might be subject to approval, whereas other requests can be approved automatically dependent on criteria such as the role and privileges of the requester (as configured in your enterprise directory service). For example, you might only autoaccept orders for the executive buffet or executive meeting rooms from PAs and directors. Different options and service providers can be designated as needed for each different room and location. For example, you might have an external caterer at smaller offices, and an internal catering team at HQ. Automated order tracking All requests are aggregated into a web-based administrative view, from where facilities staff can view and print orders for their services, either for the entire week or for a given day or meeting. There s no need to make a note of changes, as Resource Central handles all changes and cancellations. For example, if a user makes changes to catering numbers every day prior to an event, the final number required is automatically updated in the associated order. This saves an enormous amount of time spent exchanging and tracking emails and phone calls, and ultimately helps prevent waste. Flexible service options Order forms are customisable and can be varied based on the individual meeting room, building, location or even country. For example, you might not provide a catering service or allow car parking to be booked for a particular office location. A wizard simplifies the process of defining resources and the available options, including policies such as buffer times for set up and clear down, deadlines for booking catering, role-based auto-acceptance, etc. Catering options can be as detailed as you wish and include service times, totalled pricing and special request boxes. With Resource Central it s easy to create attractive, easy to use forms that reflect your corporate branding. Reports & Billing An array of reports are available or can be customised to meet your specific resource management needs. All service request can be made subject to the provision of a suitable cost code, which can be used as the basis of internal charge back. A daily and weekly requests list is automatically updated. 6

The IT Team s View Microsoft-centric approach reduces support overheads Resource Central was developed from the ground up to work with Microsoft Exchange and take advantage of the associated industry-standard technologies, including: Outlook & Exchange calendaring, email & resources Provide the bed-rock for Resource Central Active Directory - Controls who gets access to which resources IIS web services - Serves access to resource options, reports, service requests, administration portals, etc Microsoft SQL - Stores all meeting and resource booking information Resource Scheduler & ActiveSync - Ensures meeting requests are synchronised with all users in a timely fashion. This Microsoft-centric approach delivers an array of benefits to IT departments tasked with introducing the resource management service. In addition to leveraging your existing investment and skill sets to support the application and reduce end user training overheads, the administration of Resource Central is significantly eased. For example: As soon as a new staff member is enrolled in AD they have access to the appropriate resources for that user/group. If someone s location or role changes, you need only update AD. There s no separate database to maintain. Using standard Exchange resources and calendaring avoids double bookings where resources are already booked using Outlook. It also eases rollout. Different time zones are automatically catered for by Outlook calendar. Easily tailored resources A wizard allows each resource to be customised with the relevant options, including bespoke fields such as cost centres, simple or detailed catering forms and costings, and rules, such as buffer times to allow for set-up /clear down and order deadlines. The simplicity of the wizard means that the resource definition task can be passed to the facilities team. And, as the wizard generates standard HTML, it s easy to carry out advanced tailoring using your preferred HTML editor. Additionally, by using HTML pages to deliver resource selection pages, administrators don t have to push out new Outlook forms with each change. A wizard makes it easy to specify resources, restrictions & attributes. A single resource pool, a single place to manage permissions and a single calendar means we don t have to worry about supporting a totally separate system and keeping it in step. 7

Impress Visitors - Enhance Security Enhance the Visitor Experience When visitors arrive at your building, they immediately form an opinion of your company. If they are new or potential customers, giving them a warm welcome and speedy, correct information may make them long-term customers. Knowing who is in your building is also vital for maintaining security and safety, for example, in the event of a fire. Resource Central includes a guest registration service designed to create a good impression to visitors while easing the administration involved in managing them. Print visitor badges Whenever a meeting is booked, end users can provide external guest information. In addition to maintaining a weekly and daily visitor register, Resource Central s visitor administration module allows reception staff to print badges, either first thing in the morning or on arrival. Resource Central comes with out-of-the box badge designs and lets you design new badge styles as needed. Email notifications Marking the arrival of visitors in the visitor administration page automatically emails a notification to the meeting organiser. This saves time for reception staff and enables organisers to greet their visitors in a timely fashion. Book parking spaces, make special requests Parking spaces and any other special instructions that will make a visitor s stay more comfortable, such as providing assistance for a disabled visitor, can be made using Resource Central. 8

Add Value with Display Screens Screens placed outside meeting rooms and in reception areas can be used to enhance the experience of both visitors and employees alike. Maximise room utilisation By clearly showing current and forthcoming meetings, they help staff and visitors locate the correct room. They also identify in real-time rooms that are available and for how long. This service maximises utilisation, it also avoids embarrassing and unprofessional contention over rooms. Other value-add information such as personalised welcome messages, health and safety notices, fire exit signage, routes to rest rooms, travel information and more can be displayed. Choose from a wide range of screen options Resource Central works with a range of different room and desk booking screen systems to suit both your needs and your budget. Any booking made using Resource Central (or indeed Outlook calendar) is automatically relayed to the relevant room or desk device. Similarly any ad-hoc walk-by bookings or indeed any cancellations or extensions made on the day via the screen system are updated in Outlook Calendar/resource Central. Accurately report on no shows Using a combination of Resource Central and room screens, you also have the option to capture checkin data so that actual room and desk usage can be reported on more accurately, and frequent no show offenders identified. As well as adding to our professional and modern image, the screens will ensure meeting rooms are used as efficiently as possible and help cope with future demand. 9

Support a flexible working strategy In today s business environment, knowledge-based workers are only spending a fraction of their time at the office. Office hoteling, or hot-desking, offers organisations the ability to cut their overhead costs significantly while making it easier for employees to work flexibly. Organisations interested in using their facilities more efficiently are increasingly turning to Resource Central to help schedule their work spaces. Staff can use the combination of Outlook Calendar and Resource Central to locate and book available hot desks in advance to suit their schedule. Desks can be selected according to location and available facilities. Integrated floor plans that show proximity to fire exits, printers, coffee rooms, etc, also help with selection. On arrival to the office, staff can check into their reserved desk using touch sensitive screens that show navigable floor plans along with other information to help locate the desk. Staff can also make ad-hoc bookings using kiosks and/or desk-based devices that use colour coded lights to indicate desk availability. Staff can simply check their working week in Outlook calendar and book their desks as needed - without having to launch a separate application. Touch to book a desk: = occupied = free Touch to navigate the floor: L2 L1 Central R1 R2 R3 Zone 10

Improve Real-Estate Utilisation Resource Central improves your bottom line by ensuring that you re using meeting rooms and desks in the most efficient way possible. Resource Central s reports enable you to view: Room utilisation Catering and other service requests by delivery time Meeting overviews for reception You can also use SQL Reporting Services to create more complex and bespoke reports Resource Central helps you answer questions such as: Which rooms and work spaces are over- or under-utilised? Are late cancellations preventing efficient meeting room usage? Can some of our meeting rooms be turned into general office space? Can we release some of our real estate? What can be done to improve our meeting room usage? Use standard reports or create your own reports using Microsoft Reporting Services. 11

About Essential Essential is regarded as one of the UK s foremost experts on electronic messaging, email archiving & collaboration technologies Microsoft Exchange and Outlook have become the default portal through which businesses and individuals schedule their time and activities. Coupled with the use of Active Directory to define people, rooms, equipment etc, and underlying synchronisation services such as ActiveSync to support mobile staff, Exchange makes the perfect platform for optimising resource usage. Using Resource Central from developers, Add-On Products, along with complementary solutions and services, we can help you get the most out of your existing investment in Microsoft software and skills with solutions that are designed specifically to enhance Outlook and Exchange functionality and that offer full integration with Active Directory, IIS and other industry-standard infrastructure. Applications include: Room booking software to support complex bookings & service provision Hot desk booking Visitor badge creation & visitor logs Instant room booking using touch-screens Resource usage reporting Group calendaring Calendar overviews to assist in planning for events, holiday coverage, project planning, etc. About Add-On Products The author of Resource Central, Add-On Products, is a world-wide market leading provider of add-ons to the Microsoft Exchange & Outlook platform. More than 400,000 clients all over the world rely on Add-On solutions to serve their employees and customers. Resource Central a trademark of Add-On Products. Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Outlook Web Access and Office 365 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other copyrights and trademarks acknowledged. Essential Computing Channel Court 8 Hill Road Clevedon BS21 7NE Telephone: 01275 343199 Email: info@essential.co.uk Web: www.resource-essentials.com